Anyone sold a car to Shift?

Hello again, my fellow Tacomians.

As many of you may know I have been considering the sale of our ATS Cadillac. So to begin this effort the first thing I did was to check out the car-buying apps. Those where you enter the details of your car and they quote you an offer right then and there. I was thinking that if they offered a fair enough deal, I could forgo the hassles and excitement of the selling experience.

So out the info went and back came the offers, all within a few dollars of each other with the exception of this company named Shift. They returned a bid that I actually consider fair-minded all things considered, compared to the others.

Doing my research, made me aware of what these cars are selling for. And their bid was high enough that I wouldn't feel totally taken, but also low enough that they could make a respectable profit for their efforts.

All is good so far so I called and I asked their process or procedure. The girl on the phone said that I could come to them or they to me. Then if the car matches the description they would offer a contract and then I would see my money wired into my account within 24 to 48 hours.

So I said, I take it a common mediator at the bank will hold the title until the funds clear, etc? The answer was "no we leave with the car and the title, but we give you a contract".

Now I hope you can see why I'm asking for your input? I mean if this is acceptable and normal these days are there are safeties in place etc.? Paranoid, maybe but every alarm in my head was going off. So am I out of touch with the times, or does this SMELL STINKY?

I'm beginning to succumb to the fact that I am going to be personally selling a car.

 

I've sold a car to Shift. We were actually scheduled to sell them two. The day they showed up to inspect them and take them, two young dudes showed up in an Uber. Neither of them could drive stick. Both cars we were selling them were stick. They did the inspection sans test drive for obvious reasons and called an Uber to pick them back up. We ended up driving one of the cars out to their local office to us for some bonus cash ($100-200 I wanna say) and sold the other one to CarMax because Shift had lowered their offer after in-person appraisal due to some scrapes on the under bumper. CarMax didn't care and came in higher than Shift's revised offer.

Anyway, Shift is legit. So is CarMax, Carvana, and I forget the name of another one or two similar services. Way better than dealing with private party sales or trades IMO if their offer is good enough.

 

Shift is legit.

But I dunno about trading a pink slip for a contract. Seems a little suspect.

 

I'm beginning to think I either got a trainee or I have misunderstood their process. I'll call again tomorrow. I see the market for the car I have in the condition it's in is averaging $21,500 to 23K+ mostly in the middle. They are offering $18,500.

I have had others say that they will purposely bid high as a lure to get you in and then drop considerable money off your offer thinking you will settle out of convenience. I have no opinion of this or them. But it does sound like something that car dealers might come up with. I would like to know what I can believe.

It would be taking a hit but I would probably sell it for the $18,500 but not a penny less given the value of $23K or so.

This is a true only driven to church on Sunday car kidding aside. It has been pampered and kept in the garage for its entire 26000-mile life. I may post it for a couple of days and if it starts getting too bothersome give it over to one of them.

Thanks for your input, Very helpful.